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Interview: The world in focus

By Justin Mullins

If you have faulty eyesight, getting it corrected is relatively straightforward – assuming you live in the developed world. But in poorer countries the network of optometrists, ophthalmologists and glasses makers is either inadequate or non-existent. In parts of sub-Saharan Africa, there is one optometrist to every million people, compared with one to every 4000 in the UK. People there have little choice but to make do with poor vision, and all the social and economic consequences that brings.

Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are visually impaired. Only a fraction of them receive vision correction, though, and …